I picked it up surprisingly quick. The pen tool just made sense to me.

It took practice, of course. I took another class in 9th grade and then in 11th grade, I decided to do our 2 year vocational school for graphic design. Most of my classmates were in it for a easy A (they learned pretty quick that there’s not much that’s easy about adobe).

I was one of only 2 people in our whole class that passed the NYS certification.

Then I went to nursing school, became a nurse and 9 years later I’m a work from home mom and blogger.

Picking up graphic design again wasn’t exactly like riding a bike. I remembered photoshop and illustrator okay, but it was taking forever, not to mention there were a lot of new programs like InDesign that I wasn’t familiar with.

Not to mention I had a tight budget to grow a business with (or even buy groceries with) and that free trial wasn’t going to last forever.

And then I found Canva.

Simple graphic design with Canva

I spent a lot of time googling “free equivalent to adobe illustrator”, and I tried a bunch of programs.

Finally one clicked– Canva. It made sense to me (mostly). I started playing around with it. I started figuring out little tricks for the limitations (like lines and charts– don’t worry, I have tutorials in the resource library and also a free Canva 2.0 Quick Start course for you guys)

Soon I was making everything from social media graphics to products. Not only could I create them much faster, but it was significantly easier once I got the hang of it.

I soon was making enough money to upgrade to Canva from Work and that is by far the best investment I’ve made in my business. Other than email, Canva for Work gives me the highest return on investment.

BTW, you might find our Canva 101 Workshop to be a helpful place to get started! Learn more at the end of this article!

What you can create

Let’s talk about things you can easily make in Canva. I often see people struggling to make the product they have in mind. They have the idea but can’t seem to figure out how to get it on the screen in Canva.

There are seriously no limits to Canva.. I’ve personally created the following:

Canva at Work, in addition to free tools like Preview (the default photo editor on Mac), and google drive can do almost anything you need to be done for your business. You can even use your brand’s typography in your Canva graphics with ease!

Don’t know how? I do offer one and one coaching to walk you through the process. We can go through Canva and I can literally help you create whatever product idea you have and give you actionable steps to help you create an amazing, income generating (or lead generating) digital product.

We also have a Canva 101 Workshop, a free course to help you nail the basics of Canva. Sign up for free at the bottom of this post!

Limitations and hacks

Of course, nothing is perfect. Canva has some limitations that will make you super frustrated at times (although, so will any other program!)

Like when you get everything lined up and then save it and nothing is lined up.

Tip: Try lining everything up when you are zoomed in at 100% before saving

Or when you try to make a chart and there’s just no easy way.

Tip: Watch our video tutorial in the resource library or in our quick start course because we actually figured out a pretty easy way! The video tutorial is in our FREE design resource library which you can get access to on this page.

And how about when you need to make lines but you just can’t get them even and they look weird.

Tip: Again, Watch our video tutorial (Yep, we have one for that too!)

I know for a fact how long it takes to master a program like adobe. You don’t have that kind of time. I totally get that. When you are a blogger- time is money! I don’t know about you, but I have two small kids, my work time is limited. So, I need to focus on what is going to make me the MOST amount of money in the LEAST amount of time.

And that is products and passive income (like through affiliates).

Using Canva is the perfect way to rock graphic design in a simple way. Reduce the overwhelm! This doesn’t have to be hard!

I’ve been watching and listening. I want to help you ROCK Canva, but it’s just easier for me to show you!

Comments

Do you mean that you have affiliate products you promote on Pinterest? If so, absolutely! You still need to design pins for Pinterest and make them stand out against ALL the other pins! Design can definitely make a big difference with click through

Truth time. Every single thing you design represents you and your brand. But close is only good in horseshoes and handgrenades. If your social media graphics, products, and lead magnets are not jumping off the page and grabbing people-- they won’t be noticed. You need to stand out. You need to capture people long enough for them to actually read your brilliant words. Simplifying DIY Design is here to help you create astonishing graphics that jump off the page. What does that mean for you? More impact. More growth. More money. Read More!

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Are you a blogger wanting to create better graphics to grow your blog?

Hi! I'm Kara and my mission is to teach you how to design better graphics that grow your blog AND provide you super simple, easy to use tools to make it happen!

If you'd like to grab our 10 free canva lead magnet template pack just pop your email in the form below and I'll send over access to the designed-for-you templates along with the password to our free library of templates, exclusive tutorials, and design tools :-) Welcome, I'm so glad you're here!!!